Musician for Hire, East Coast Refugee

Hello! I'm a working rock/blues keyboardist and church organist from Lancaster, PA. I'm earning a living throughout the area as a session keyboardist for live shows and studio recording. Musicians find me to be a reliable sideman and substitute keyboardist for many styles of music, an ever-evolving repertoire of classic rock and pop, garage rock, prog and neo-prog, disco, funk, soul, blues, oldies and more.

A lot of my stage experience comes from working with tribute bands concentrating on the music of specific artists. I've played tributes to Led Zeppelin, Yngwie Malmsteen, Bad Company, Amy Winehouse, the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Eagles and Foreigner.

Speaking of Eagles and Foreigner, when both of those bands came to the Philadelphia area in 2014, the band booked to play their pre-show warm-up sets plugged me in as their keyboardist. Same for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Steve Winwood, Queen + Adam Lambert, and Styx.

It's now my sixth year playing with the Philly area's beloved dance/party band the Flamin' Caucasians. The band formed in 1983, observing classic and current popular dance music. As the band continues to play nowadays, the audiences move and shake to jukebox-like performances of material popularized by Chuck Berry, Dion & the Belmonts, KC & the Sunshine Band, Bruce Springsteen, Violent Femmes, Michael Franti, Pharrell Williams and, God help us, Justin Timberlake!

Performing lends itself to teaching. Whenever I give private music lessons, one of my goals is that my instruction incorporates equal parts hands-on practicality and music theory education. I seek to encourage open thinking about the music: If doing one particular thing sounds good, then doing this other similar thing ought to sound good too.

Besides all of that, I've been playing church organ since 1990. My current position has me overseeing my church's music program, meaning I plan and lead the music at liturgies including weddings and funerals, direct a traditional choir, advise a contemporary music group, and present workshops to encourage churchgoers to sing and play.

Guess I should explain the "East Coast Refugee" thing. I basically lived close to the East Coast's dear highway I-95 for my whole life, when around age 30 I wanted to get away. So I decided I'd leave the East Coast behind and do some driving for a few months. Traveling solo and far from any home I'd ever known made me an East Coast refugee. Somewhere within Arkantennetexassippi, I discovered music is my passion. I became enchanted by the South and even chose to marry a great gal from Oklahoma. Her accent still makes me laugh sometimes.